Search sets
Find model elements by their properties with a saved rule — every wall rated EI 60, say — and see them in the 3D viewer, highlighted or isolated.
A search set is a saved rule that finds elements in some of the project's models by their properties, for example every wall with a fire rating of EI 60. Only the rule is saved. The results are worked out again each time you open it, from each model's newest converted version, so they stay up to date when models get new versions.
Search sets are under Models → Search sets, filed in folders. You can read a search set's matches as a table, see them in the 3D viewer highlighted or isolated, and count them on the Progress dashboard.
Who can do what
Search sets belong to the models: what you may do with them comes from the Models level of your permission profile on the project. Each level includes the ones before it, and organization owners and admins can do everything.
| Task | Who |
|---|---|
| See search sets, their results and history, show them in the viewer | Models at View or above |
| Create search sets and folders, duplicate a search set | Models at Create or above |
| Change a search set's models, conditions, name or folder; rename or move folders | Models at Edit or above |
| Delete search sets and folders | Models at Full control |
With the default profiles, Manager has full control of models and search sets; Contributor, Field, Partner and Viewer can only view them.
Create a search set
Open Search sets and click New search set. Give it a name and a folder, then click Create search set.
On its page, which opens on Models, click Add models, tick the models to search and add them in one go. To take one out, choose Remove from search set in its row's menu; the model stays in the project. The filter box finds a model among the ones added.
On Conditions, choose Match All of these or Any of these, then Add condition: pick a property, an operator (equals, does not equal, contains, is set, is not set) and a value from the ones the models contain.
Check Results as you go. They follow your unsaved rule. Click Save when it is right.
A search set with no conditions matches nothing.
Read the results
Results lists the matches with Name, Level, Category, Family Name and Family Type, plus any properties you add as columns. It shows the total count and the first 500 elements. Models not converted yet are named and skipped.
See a search set in the 3D viewer
Choose Open in viewer in the search set's header. The viewer opens over the page, named after the search set, on its converted models, with its elements highlighted and the camera framing them. It shows the search set as it is saved, not your unsaved changes. Like a view, it keeps to the search set's models: the Models panel turns them off and on, but does not add others.
The Search set panel sets how it shows:
- Highlight draws its elements in colour and leaves the rest as they are.
- Isolate keeps its elements solid and draws the rest of the model see-through, like the X-ray: clicks go through it to the elements behind, and the building stays around them for bearings.
- Frame its elements fits the view to them. The panel also says how many matching elements are on screen.
Organize search sets in folders
Folders only sort search sets; they change nothing about them.
- To create a folder, use New folder, or New folder in a folder's menu to create one inside it.
- To rename or move a folder or a search set, choose Rename or move in its row's menu. A search set's folder can also be changed on its page.
- Only an empty folder can be deleted. Move its folders and search sets out first.
Type in the search box to find a search set by name in every folder, and open Filters to list only the search sets that search a given Model.
Duplicate, follow and delete
- Duplicate, in the search set's menu or its row's menu in the list, makes a copy with the same models and conditions, named "(copy)", and opens it.
- Activity shows the search set's history: who changed its name, folder, models or rule, and when.
- Delete search set removes only the rule; the models and their elements stay as they are. Its history stays in the project's activity.
Good to know
- Deleting a model takes it out of every search set.
- Progress scopes can count a search set: its models, narrowed to what it matches. Deleting the search set leaves those scopes counting nothing until you point them elsewhere. See Progress.
- Limits. A search set searches up to 50 models with up to 50 conditions, and finds up to 100,000 elements.
- Activity. Every search set created, changed or deleted is listed in the project's Activity, under Search sets.
- API. Search sets, their folders, results and the element ids the viewer highlights can be read and written with an API key that has the
modelscope. See the API reference for search sets and their folders.